way perfect from the first, and that man himself was the work of a moment of time. We know man only as a being of birth and growth. We know that by laws of heredity parents transmit certain qualities of good or of evil to their offspring. Some are born with a diseased and abnormal constitution, and no wisdom or power of man is capable of removing a prenatal malady. It is also matter of fact that the natural imperfections of childhood furnish occasions for many kinds of sin and folly, and such imperfections are often put forward in extenuation of the offense although admitted to be no real excuse for it. Certain habits of evil-doing and character resulting therefrom become also a fruitful source of sins, just as good habits and excellent character naturally beget the fruits of righteousness. "Each tree is known by its own fruit. For of thorns men do not gather figs, nor of a bramble bush gather they grapes. The good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and the evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth that which is evil" (Luke vi, 44, 45). But in the interpretation of these facts of life and growth we must not forget that character and habits of life are the product of many distinct and successive acts of the will.' In the individual life of man we do not find his first sin to be the greatest. It is impossible to determine just when, where, and how the first conscious act of transgression takes place in any one young life. Habits of sinning come by almost imperceptible degrees; and what is thus true in the individual was probably also true in the earliest life of the race. On such a question we do well to refrain from any dogmatic assumptions.

8. Biblical Records of Apostasy. The same. cause which accounts for original transgression and for all subsequent acts of wickedness in the history of mankind is also adequate to account for the numerous examples of apostasy which are mentioned in the biblical records. We have seen that the most aggravated form in which sin manifests itself is that settled obduracy which rejects the clearest light of truth, resists all the counsels of love and wisdom, and hardens the heart against all admonition and reproof. It is notably the sin of those who have been enlightened and made partakers of superior revelations of God.

(1) Israel's Apostasy in the Desert. The disobedience and apostasy of the Israelites in the wilderness are typical examples. Lawgivers, prophets, psalmists, and apostles hold them up for

1 So Julius Müller: "As the quality of the fruit depends upon the nature of the tree, so the good and evil acts of man depend upon the good or evil state of the heart; but this very state is itself again dependent upon the primary decisions of the will: Make ye [Toihoare] the tree good corrupt" (Matt. xii, 33).

The Christian Doctrine of Sin. Trans. by Urwick, vol. ii, p. 61. Edinburgh, 1868.

religious instruction and for warning. "Because all those men that have seen my glory, and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, yet have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice; surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that despised me see it" (Num. xiv, 22, 23). These words and other scriptures of similar purport inculcate at least four important doctrines so direct and positive as to be treated as so many matters of fact: (1) The most impressive manifestations of God's love and power do not compel the obedience of those who behold them; (2) an evil heart of unbelief is capable of treating all such displays of divine glory with disrespect and scorn; (3) men who have long followed the leadings of God may at last turn and rebel against him; (4) such rebellion is certain to bring condemnation and ruin upon the guilty offenders.

(2) Examples of Saul, David, Solomon. Saul, the son of Kish, is represented as a choice young man, and was anointed prince over Israel. The Spirit of Jehovah came upon him and changed him into another man (1 Sam. ix, 2; x, 1, 6). But after many favors of God, and many lessons from the prophet Samuel, he turned back from Jehovah and failed to keep his commandments (xv, 11). David also was highly honored and called a man after God's own heart; but in an hour of temptation he sinned most grievously and even became guilty of the death of Uriah. His son Solomon also began his reign with marked evidences of piety and wisdom; but when he grew old "his wives turned away his heart after other gods" (1 Kings xi, 4). Later examples of unbelief and apostasy among the kings and people of Israel, persisted in against the urgent messages and warnings of the prophets, resulted in national disaster and exile.

(3) New Testament Admonition and Warning. The New Testament abounds in warnings and admonitions against apostasy from the living God, and thus inculcates the freedom and responsibility of the individuals addressed. Paul expresses his astonishment that the Galatian converts should so quickly turn away from the gospel of Christ and become bewitched and misled by men who troubled the Church of God (Gal. i, 6, 7; iii, 1). The epistle to the Hebrews is from first to last a continuous admonition for those who had heard the gospel of salvation in Christ, lest they should somehow "drift away from the things that were heard" (Heb. ii, 1). They are warned against "an evil heart of unbelief, in falling away from the living God" (iii, 12). They are reminded of the "provocation in the wilderness," and are exhorted to diligence "that no man fall after the same example of disobedience"

(iv, 11). They are solemnly told that "it is impossible to renew again unto repentance" such as have fallen away from a high attainment of Christian knowledge, "seeing they keep right on crucifying to themselves the Son of God afresh, and putting him to an open shame" (vi, 4-6). Compare also the solemn statements of x, 26-29. The peril of final and remediless apostasy from Christ is assumed in all these alarming appeals, and we are admonished by them that there is lodged in the freedom of the human will the power of breaking away from the highest and holiest good and plunging into the hopeless ruin of a fiery judgment which shall devour the adversaries of God. The last state of those who make such "shipwreck concerning the faith" (1 Tim. i, 19) is worse than the first, and is well set forth in the language of 2 Pet. ii, 20, 21: "For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein and overcome, the last state is become worse with them than the first. For it were better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after knowing it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them." All these and other similar admonitions witness the power and responsibility attaching to human freedom, and the adequacy of that power to account both for the origin and the persistence of sin in the world.

CHAPTER III

DIVERS ASPECTS OF SIN IN THE VARIOUS BIBLICAL WRITERS

1. Defective Moral Standards of Old Testament Times. A noteworthy variety of moral standards, involving as many distinctive conceptions of the nature of sin, may be observed in different parts of the Scriptures. We cannot fail to note the imperfect ethical system witnessed by certain narratives and laws. The examples of polygamy and falsehood among the ancient patriarchs; the laws of slavery as read in Exod. xxi, 4-21, and of divorce in Deut. xxiv, 1; the outrageous cruelties practiced in the times of the judges; the presumptuous daring and immoralities of the kings of Israel and Judah; these and such like are recorded in a manner which implies not only a low moral sense, but also a low moral standard then prevalent among the leaders of the people and in the community at large. Wickedness and transgression are measured, not so much by a profound conception of sin as "exceeding sinful” through the commandment of God (Rom. vii, 13), as by some general notion of disconformity to a conventional standard. The vilest sinners are spoken of as "sons of Belial," good-for-nothing, worthless fellows (Judg. xix, 22; Deut. xiii, 13), who commit "folly in Israel" (Judg. xx, 6). Willful transgression against God is conceived as great foolishness (1 Sam. xiii, 13; 2 Sam. xxiv, 10). The laws of bondage in Exod. xxi, 4-21, and of personal retaliation in Exod. xxi, 23-25; the horrible punishment of Achan visited not on himself only, but on "his sons, and his daughters, and his oxen, and his sheep, and his tent, and all that he had" (Josh. vii, 24); the mutilation of Adoni-bezek (Judg. i, 6), and the hewing of Agag in pieces by Samuel (1 Sam. xv, 33), are witnessing examples of the relative barbarism which had the supposed sanction of divine law among the people of Israel. The prevalence of such ideas and practices implies a notable lack of fine moral distinctions and a corresponding imperfection in the concept of sin.

2. Imprecatory Psalms. The same is to be said of the spirit which finds expression in the imprecatory psalms.

Hold them guilty, O God;

Let them fall by their own counsels;

In the multitude of their transgressions thrust them out;
For they have rebelled against thee. Psa. v, 10.

Let their eyes be darkened that they see not;

And make their loins continually shake.

Pour out upon them thine indignation,

And let the fierceness of thine anger overtake them.

Let their encampment be desolate;

In their tents let there not be a dweller. Psa. lxix, 23-25.

Set thou a wicked man over him,

And let an adversary stand at his right hand.

When he is judged, let him come forth guilty;

And let his prayer be turned into sin.

Let his children be fatherless,

And his wife a widow.

Let his children be vagabonds and beg;

And let them seek (their bread) out of their desolate places.

Let the extortioner catch all that he hath;

And let strangers make spoil of his labor,

Let there be none to extend kindness to him;

Neither let there be any to have pity on his fatherless children.
Let his posterity be cut off;

In the generation following let their name be blotted out.

Psa. cix, 6-13.

O daughter of Babylon that art to be destroyed;

Happy shall he be that requiteth thee

The reward which thou hast rewarded us.

Happy he who shall seize and dash thy infant children
Against the rock. Psa. cxxxvii, 8, 9.

The vindictive spirit of these psalms, like Elijah's commanding fire to come down from heaven and consume those sent against him (2 Kings i, 10, 12), belongs to an inferior plane of moral sense as compared with the ideals of Jesus when he rebuked his disciples for the manifestation of a similar feeling (Luke ix, 54, 55), and when he inculcated love for enemies and persecutors (Matt. v, 44). Wherever such defective standards of moral sentiment control, there must necessarily be some lack of keen spiritual insight in the prevailing conceptions of the real nature of sin. The imprecatory psalms accord with the spirit and the letter of the legislation of Exod. xxi, 24, 25, rather than with the gospel of our Lord Jesus. The lex talionis has its element of righteousness, but is superseded by the higher lessons of the golden rule.

3. Public and National Sins Overshadow the Individual. The national life and theocratic spirit of the Jewish people tended to absorb the individual in the state, and thus to exalt the idea of public righteousness. The solidarity and perpetuity of the nation